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McDonalds ordered to pay restaurant manager overtime
In a Tokyo District Court ruling expected to reverberate around the nation’s fast food industry, McDonald’s Japan was Monday ordered to pay overtime wages to a restaurant manager.Presiding Judge Iwao Saito ignored the fast food giant’s claim that store managers were exempt from overtime payments because they are in managerial positions and ordered it to…
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Shaping the future as an immigrant nation
JAPAN’S POPULATION DECLINE “By 2050, Japan’s population will have shrunk from the current 127 million to about 90 million, and to about 40 million by the end of the century. By my calculations, we need 10 million new immigrants by midcentury to survive as a nation,” Hidenori Sakanaka, former head of the Tokyo Regional Immigration…
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Foreigner registration system to be revised
May lead to better services, more control Under the new system, long-term foreign residents will get registration cards at airports and local immigration offices, which will then be used to register their information at local governments. The data will be controlled in a similar manner as for Japanese citizens, and used to compile information for…
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Japan to adopt new register system for foreigners
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and the Ministry of Justice have decided to abolish the Alien Registration Act’s system of residence administration, and adopt a register system similar to the basic resident register system for Japanese, it has been learned.Registration of foreigners under the act, which formerly involved fingerprinting, will end and certificates…
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Japanese gov’t looks at tighter controls on foreigners
Japan is looking to tighten controls on foreign residents to crack down on undocumented aliens and ensure that all households receive public services, Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama said Friday. Japan largely sees itself as ethnically homogeneous and has consistently rejected wide-scale immigration despite having one of the world’s lowest birth rates. It requires foreign residents…
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Komeito leader welcomes Ozawa’s proposal to give foreigners voting rights
Kazuo Kitagawa, secretary-general of ruling coalition partner Komeito, has voiced support for opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) leader Ichiro Ozawa’s suggestion of considering submitting a bill to give foreigners with permanent residence status the right to vote in local elections.”I would like a bill to be compiled and submitted,” Kitagawa said of the proposed…
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Firms urged to do more to help foreigners adapt to Japanese society
Local governments in central Honshu unveiled a charter on Monday urging companies to help foreign workers adapt to Japanese society, officials said. The Aichi, Gifu and Mie prefectural governments as well as the Nagoya Municipal Government have worked out the charter in cooperation with local business organizations including the Chubu Economic Federation. The six-point charter…
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Paper scandal points to shortcomings of Japan Inc
Corporate governance is a relatively new concept in Japan, the world’s second-largest economy. It ranks 38th out of 49 nations, lagging behind South Africa, Venezuela and Peru, according to GovernanceMetrics International, a corporate governance ratings agency. The scandals come on top of what analysts see as insular management styles in Japan and an insufficient number…
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Growing Reliance on Temps Holds Back Japan’s Rebound
Firms Increasingly Add Part-Time Workers; Spending Power Lags The rise of temps began in the 1990s as Japan entered its long slump and low-cost nations such as China posed unprecedented competition. To compete, Japanese companies shifted large chunks of their manufacturing capacities overseas. At home, cost-cutting came slowly, partly because layoffs were taboo. Then, labor-law…